View source for Those Girls by Chevy Stevens

{{infobox1
|title=Those Girls
|author=Chevy Stevens
|reviewer= Zoe Morris
|genre=Thrillers
|summary= A compelling read, you know to root for ''those girls'' from the start but it's still not clear whether they can ever have the life they deserve and forget the past
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=496
|publisher=Sphere 
|date=January 2016
|isbn= 978-0751555066
|website= http://chevystevens.com/
|cover=0751555061
|aznuk=0751555061
|aznus=0751555061
}}

''Those girls'' don't have it easy. Jess, Courtney and Dani are grafters. Teen girls with a mum who is gone and a father who is barely there, they have a lot to contend with. They're hard workers but life is not glam, out of the farm where things are dusty, dirty and, at times, dangerous.
 
''Those girls'' find themselves in an unforgiving and unforgettable situation. And with few alternatives they find themselves on the run, vowing never to return to their country town.

''Those girls'' start again. New identities, new names, new opportunities, they hope. But you can't always escape a past like that, as they are about the find out.

This book was capital B ''Brilliant'' with a story that drags you in from the very first page. My empathy was with the sisters from the start, and there was little they could do that would change my opinion. It wasn't always the easiest read, and some rape scenes in particular were quite graphic, but I almost felt a female duty to stick with it, and with them.
 
I enjoy books that take different points of view, and in this one the time jump between the past and the present allowed a rather fun switch from Jess to Skylar. It wasn't hard to remember we were now in the present day – a few subtle and less subtle references to Skylar's hobbies and interests made that clear – but I did think the girls had aged well and you could still see their personalities, even 18 or so years later.

This is a book that couldn't happen as easily in the UK. You need access to guns, not just for gangs but for everyday farm folk. You need remote backwaters that appear almost frozen in time. You need the landscapes and the people, and the contrast between small town and big city that Canada does so well. I enjoyed the escapism this brought: I knew I was somewhere else and I was just along for the ride.
 
This is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a while, which is not something I would normally say about something so haunting. There isn't a lot of mystery here because what happens happens in plain sight, narrated with and without emotion as need be, but even knowing what is going on, you still can't escape the feeling that something is coming. Something big, and most probably something bad.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending us a copy to review. It was superb.

For more family drama, we would recommend [[After The Fall by Charity Norman]].

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